The poll is unique because it does not include voters from the city of Detroit.

Among the data was a question asking how voters would rate the job Rick Snyder has done as Michigan’s governor. Since Snyder is a Republican and voters in Detroit are overwhelmingly Democratic, you might expect Snyder to do really well outside the city. But 52% of voters rated Gov. Snyder as having done a

That 46% approval rating is a little higher than recent polls of Michigan voters, including Detroit. Those polls have Snyder’s approval rating hovering around 40%.

Myths about Detroit's financial demise persist

Voters outside of Detroit are holding onto some old myths about the city’s financial crisis.

The poll asked Michigan voters who do not live in Detroit to give their opinions about the city. One question asked participants what they’d say is the "single most important cause of Detroit’s financial crisis?"

32% volunteered it was poor or corrupt leadership.

19% said wasteful spending or mismanagement.

The third-highest choice was Kwame Kilpatrick. Eight percent blamed the former mayor and now inmate

Despite a lot of news media coverage and even books clearly illustrating Detroit’s financial woes started as far back as the end of World War II, voters choose to accept the conventional wisdom that the blame lies mostly with inept or corrupt Detroit politicians who’ve held office since the 1967 race riots.

Credit Lester Graham / Michigan Radio

Thomas Sugrue wrote a landmark book regarding the decline of Detroit. In a recent speech to a gathering of business leaders, he said there's more to Detroit's financial troubles than race riots, white flight and corrupt politicians.

"To understand where we are and where we came from requires going way beyond conventional wisdom – going to the period immediately after the Second World War, which is when Detroit's troubles really began. It wasn't just 1967. It's deeper and more profound," Sugrue remarked.

He suggests – along with a growing number of urban analysts – that the entire state and the suburbs around Detroit will work more cooperatively in order to make the city stronger. He says a stronger Detroit will mean a stronger Michigan.

Support for the Detroit Journalism Cooperative on Michigan Radio comes from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Renaissance Journalism's Michigan Reporting Initiative, and the Ford Foundation.

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A new poll shows Michigan voters outside of Detroit approve using state money to support the so-called “Grand Bargain” to bolster City of Detroit retirees’ pensions and protect the Detroit Institute of Arts' collection. The poll was commissioned by Michigan Radio and its partners in the Detroit Journalism Cooperative . (See DJC partner Bridge Magazine's coverage of the poll here .) It found almost half of voters outside the city of Detroit support the state government contributing $350 million to help solve some of the sticky issues of the bankruptcy. Forty-nine percent favor the contribution, 34 percent oppose it.

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr was in Lansing today. He testified before the newly-formed House committee on Detroit's recovery and Michigan's future. The committee will begin debate on the package of bills that would have the state contributing close to $195 million to the city. With Detroit's bankruptcy heading toward a July trial over Orr's plan to eliminate the city's debt, state lawmakers are fast-tracking the package of bills. They hope to get the bills to the House floor for a vote as early as next week, and eventually onto the governor's desk by early June. MLive Capitol reporter Jonathan Oosting was at today's session, and he joined us from Lansing. *Listen to the full interview above.